Pep Guardiola’s latest challenge: How do you cope without Erling Haaland?

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Manchester City have normally fared pretty well without Erling Haaland, but there is nothing normal about their current situation.

Pep Guardiola confirmed on Tuesday that striker Haaland will miss five to seven weeks with an ankle injury, ruling him out of the majority of the rest of the Premier League and FA Cup campaigns, though he should be back for the Club World Cup being held in the United States in June and July.

Things looked relatively rosy for City after their FA Cup quarter-final victory against Bournemouth on Sunday but Haaland’s injury in that match is the latest reminder that things never seem to go well for them for long this season.

City drew against Brighton and lost to Nottingham Forest, both rivals for Champions League qualification, before the March international break and while statistically they have the most lenient run-in of all Premier League clubs, Opta’s fixture difficulty analysis did not bargain for the absence of Haaland.

Since Haaland arrived from Borussia Dortmund in July 2022, City have often coped well enough whenever he has been out of action, and there used to be an interesting discussion about whether the team might even be better without him, even if only for one-off games, but frankly that is not at all relevant now.

Before this season, City had a reliable squad who were mostly fit and performing at the top of their game. They could play with a less explosive forward, such as Julian Alvarez, or without a forward at all, because the stand-ins were highly capable and all the other pieces were in place.

As has become evident over the past few months, that is no longer the case.

Haaland was actually the City player who had played the most minutes this season, even more than the goalkeepers. He and defender Josko Gvardiol have appeared in 28 of the 29 Premier League games while basically everybody else in the squad has had injury problems and/or suffered a huge downturn in form.

City did freshen up the squad in the winter window with four new signings, and against Liverpool in February they fielded their joint-youngest team of the nine-year Guardiola era.

On Sunday in Bournemouth, though, the manager went with the more maligned senior players and it proved enough for a 2-1 win, suggesting that while a new route forward is available, the old way might not be so bad after all.

Haaland had to watch from the stands against Liverpool in February, and saw his side lose 2-0 (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

But whoever Guardiola has picked elsewhere, Haaland has become more integral than ever thanks to a crucial combination of availability and goal threat.

Last season, Alvarez weighed in with 19 goals in all competitions, and Phil Foden scored 27. Bernardo Silva also got 12 and Rodri nine, so there was a supporting cast for the Norwegian. In Haaland’s debut campaign, five other City players made it to double figures in all competitions: Foden, Riyad Mahrez (both 15), Alvarez (17), Kevin De Bruyne (10) and Ilkay Gundogan (11).

So far in 2024-25, only one other City player has reached double figures and although Foden has 10, six of those came in a four-match run in January and he hasn’t scored since. Jeremy Doku and James McAtee are next on the list with six each. City came into the current midweek round of Premier League games as the joint-second highest scorers in the division, but Haaland has contributed 38 per cent of that total.

His absence also shines another light on the club’s relaxed attitude to squad building last summer. That topic came to a head towards the end of 2024, as the extent of City’s slump became more and more apparent as the games passed and the defeats mounted.

The club’s activity in the winter window, bringing in four first-team signings, did at least act as a peace offering. But now Haaland looks like being out for at least a month, it is a reminder that City decided to go into this season without making major changes to the squad. They — and Guardiola specifically — decided not to replace Alvarez following his move to Atletico Madrid because they felt they would have enough options.

The idea they could rely on a false nine was understandable because it had served them so well in the years pre-Haaland. Gundogan returned last summer following a season with Barcelona and was expected to play in an attacking midfield role while Foden had also played that position expertly in 2021-22 and, as the PFA Player’s Player of the Year for 2023-24, he was coming off his best season yet.

They could still represent good options — playing that way might offer Gundogan a role he may be more suited to than scrapping around in an exposed midfield — but they hardly go into the run-in in sparkling form.

One obvious idea is to use Omar Marmoush, one of those January arrivals, as a Haaland proxy.

The Egyptian is the only player in the squad who makes the kind of runs in behind that Haaland does and, on paper, has a decent scoring record, with five from his 11 City appearances in all competitions, including the winner on Sunday.

Marmoush replaced the injured Haaland at Bournemouth and went on to score the winner (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Three of those goals came in February’s fine 4-0 home victory against Newcastle, though, and while they do provide an example of the threat Marmoush can pose, there have been plenty of other games where he has not come close to replicating it. That is to be expected in his first weeks in a new league but it is less helpful in the context of needing to replace Haaland here and now.

After that goal at the Vitality Stadium, Marmoush was criticised by Guardiola on a couple of occasions for not, in layman’s terms, putting himself about enough, not being strong enough in duels or committed enough with chances. Haaland has his faults — he missed enough chances himself before scoring the equaliser against Bournemouth — but he is a handful for defenders if nothing else. At points this season, that has almost seemed to have been his main job.

Guardiola did not sound especially enthused about the idea of using Marmoush as Haaland’s replacement, but that can probably be put down to his usual vagueness when asked about replacing an injured player.

“Yeah,” he said, when asked about Marmoush as a striker. “Phil (Foden) can play there. Macca (James McAtee) can play there, Oscar Bobb can play there. Yeah, there are players that can play there.”

There was a little bit more when asked again about Marmoush’s merits — “He likes to play close to the box. He loves to score, he has a sense of goal. Definitely” — but the idea of McAtee or Bobb playing is an interesting one.

Guardiola talked up McAtee as a bona fide first-team option ahead of the season but, despite City’s struggles, the 22-year-old has barely featured. On several occasions, Guardiola has said he may have made a mistake on that front and while he speaks as if it is still not something he is going to change, a completely new spot in the team opening up does at least offer an extra possibility that McAtee is going to play, especially as the most eye-catching area of his game this season has been his goal threat.

Oscar Bobb’s absence this season, after an impressive pre-season, has been costly (Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

It could also represent a way back into the team for Bobb, who looked set for a breakthrough year after impressing during pre-season — only to fracture his leg in training in August.

The last time Guardiola was asked for an update on his delayed return, he suggested it might be hard to get on the pitch because all the other wingers are fit at the moment, but the need for a striker (most like a false one in this case) could help the 21-year-old, especially as Guardiola raves about his pressing, an aspect of City’s game that Haaland leads.

For so many reasons, Haaland’s importance has grown hugely this season. When he missed games against Real Madrid and Liverpool, City were remarkably toothless, especially in the Bernabeu.

City’s upcoming opponents will not be as strong as those two sides but Guardiola not only has to find the right man to replace Haaland, he needs all the other pieces to fall into place too.

This is just the latest test in a hugely difficult season.

(Top photo: Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

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